What are you currently reading?

[Stephanie]

I totally agree although, that's easier said than done.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Description is probably one of the hardest things for a writer to master. For me, it is still the hardest thing to include. While I write, I worry that I'm giving too much, so I cut it down and then I worry it is too little. And when I'm editing, I am constantly double-guessing myself on everything from content (what to include) to placing (where in the story I want it) to the actual words themselves (how I want to say it).

Yes, easier said than done. The task of writing is like juggling with one hand while spinning plates on sticks with the other hand while your mouth is making a wooden puppet dance on its strings while you are trying to sing an opera.

[Kate]

I remember the thing I disliked about Paolini's writing was - how to describe it. Wish-fulfillment? The hero was too heroic, always the biggest baddest fastest coolest guy around, and everyone constantly acknowledged that. I mean, in some sense the hero HAS to be the most heroic, because otherwise he isn't the hero. But I remember a scene where the wise old teacher figure is having a fighting session with the kid, and he steps back and intones "I have no more to teach you." And I ended up thinking, "Come on, the kid is only seventeen and you have three decades of fighting experience on him, and he's already better than you?" Didn't seem realistic to me.

Contrast to a similar scene from Tad Williams's The Dragonbone Chair. The young seventeen-year-old hero is showing off his sword skills to a much older knight, saying modestly, "I don't know much" and hoping to be contradicted. But the older knight just agrees, "No, you don't. Here let me show you a few things . . ." and he starts teaching the kid how to be a badass. Which he is; but I liked the detail that not everyone in the book kowtowed to him simply because he was the hero.

I think it's a young-writer mistake, honestly. The thing teenagers want most is respect from adults, and they hardly ever get it. So you have your teenage hero or heroine instead, and all the adults ooh and aahh at them instead.

Make any sense? I didn't mean to go on so long.

[Stephanie]

I agree, Rita. I have whole paragraphs of description that I need to rework because they sound too mechanical and disjointed.

Now that you point that out, Kate, that scene is really cheesy and makes me want to laugh.

[Kate]

It's problematic when all the secondary characters seem to know that the book is about the hero, and just stand around watching him. Because in real life, no one ever thinks he's the sidekick - we are all the stars of our own lives. Secondary characters can't act like they know they're just supporting characters.

[Stephanie]

I've never thought of it that way but that makes a lot of sense.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Kate wrote: "It's problematic when all the secondary characters seem to know that the book is about the hero, and just stand around watching him."


That's how I felt about the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. I loved the first book, but by the time I got to the fifth book, I was turned off by the secondary characters. I can understand not developing them in the first book, but by the fifth they should be more then plot proppers.

I'm beginning to feel that way about Sookie Stackhouse. How does one girl have 5 of the hottest men hanging on her every word?

[Kate]

I got some good advice once about writing secondary characters - ask yourself, "What do they want?" If you can't supply an answer better than "She wants to be the heroine's Best Friend" or "Be a foil to the hero" then you have a flat secondary characters. Everybody wants something. THEY don't know they're not the center of the (book's) world!

Eric, Bill, Quinn, Alcide, Sam . . . yum. Though I think Eric has gone a bit downhill. He used to be intensely scary as well as a hunk, and now he's just this big gentle cookie. I liked him better scary.

[Stephanie]

You know who has some really great secondary characters? Brandon Mull in his new book A World Without Heroes.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Kate wrote: "Everybody wants something. THEY don't know they're not the center of the (book's) world!"

Great advice, Kate.

Kate wrote: "Though I think Eric has gone a bit downhill. He used to be intensely scary as well as a hunk, and now he's just this big gentle cookie."

I can't stand it when men are written in such a way that the heroine has to save the man. I don't mind a strong female, but I can't stand weak men. I just read the 3rd book in the Sookie series, and I was disappointed by how the author turned Eric into a puppy dog.

Kate, have you read the Mercedes Thompson series? I lik her portrayal of men much better. But I also like werewolves more than vampires.

[Kate]

Read the first one, though it was a little random plot-wise. But it did have cute guys . . .

[Stephanie]

lol

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I like Mercy better than Sookie. Mercy has the right amount of grit and wit that I don't feel Sookie has. Mercy seems to truly care about the men interested in her rather than just wanting to bed them.

And IMO, Adam outranks any of Sookie's men in hotness. He never turns into a mush that can be rolled over, and he wants more than to seduce the protagonist. He has motivation of his own.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Last December, several people mentioned Matilda by Roald Dahl. I got it from the library and am reading it with the kids.

Trunchbull makes me want to go crazy. How could someone be so awful and be in charge of a school?

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I just finished reading Outside In by Maria V. Snyder. Have any of you read that one yet? I really enjoyed the fast paced story and thought the author did an excellent job with the character's struggle with responsibility.

Now I'm reading Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn.

[Stephanie]

I just finished The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan a few days ago. I finished Witch and Wizard by James Patterson about a hour ago. Now I'm on to read The Hourglass Door, unless I change my mind.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

You certainly read a lot, Stephanie! How many books do you read in a month?

[Dustin]

Holy crapola! I've been reading the same book for well over two months now, and you've already read two and onto your third!

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I was like that as a kid. I'd read everything I could get my hands on. I never got in trouble with my parents (until I was a teenager) because I was busy reading, but there were times my dad would come into my room and take all my books.

"You can't read for a week. Go outside and play," he'd say.

And then there were some summers where the rule was that I could only read one fiction novel if I read one biography first. I hated reading biographies so much that I didn't read much those summers.

Now, I wouldn't have so many problems reading a biography. I enjoy learning things.

[Stephanie]

I usually average about a novel a month, sometimes less. I'm four books behind on my reading goal for the year though so I have to read a lot. Plus I had been dying to read (Ranger's Apprentice 10) The Emperor of Nihon-Ja since I read Halt's Peril last year- so that was a quick read. I was actually 20 pages into Witch and Wizard when I picked it up again the other day.

I can plow through a bunch of books when I want to. And that's a good thing considering that I have four more to go until I'm caught up.

I've been reading The Return of the King for four months now and I'm only 65 pages into it, Dustin. It has always taken me months to read the Lord of the Rings books.

Oh yeah, I finished Brandon Mull's new book A World Without Heroes a couple weeks ago. It was pretty good. At this point though, the Fablehaven series is better.

[Stephanie]

I just finished The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum today. It is amazing. It's possibly the best romance novel I've ever read.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Stephanie, that book sounds really good. I've added it to my to-read list.

[Stephanie]

It is absolutely amazing! I can't wait to read the second and third books!

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

I just finished Outside In by Maria V. Snyder and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Both were really good, completely different opposites of the spectrum but so good.

Now I'm reading The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness on my Kindle. It's really good so far, I'm impressed.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

What did you think of Outside In?

[Stephanie]

I just finished The Golden Spiral the other day. It was great!

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

I really enjoyed Outside In. It took me a little longer to finish than Snyder's books normally do because I don't know when her next project is due to come out or what its going to be about. I thought Trella was a great heroine and different than typical YA. Snyder has not disappointed me yet. :)

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

How are those books Stephanie? Hourglass and the Golden Spiral?

[Stephanie]

They're really good. They're romance novels but they also deal with some time travel. It's not all about the love story, so in other words, it's my type of romance novel. They're written really well. The prologues in both books are written in a style I usually hate but the author pulls it off really well, so I actually enjoy how it's different from the rest of the book. I'm not sure what the style is called; someone else could probably tell you though.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I'm reading XVI. Three chapters in, and I'm not sure what I think of it. Has anyone else read this one yet?

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

I haven't even heard of it. I need to go to the library...I haven't been in months!

[Stephanie]

Never heard of it. But I'm about to start reading Entwined.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I found out about it when I went to a book signing with Maria V. Snyder and 5 other authors. I could only buy 2 books (Outside In was one of them, of course), and for the other, I decided to pick one of the new authors.

Sadly, very few people bought books from the new ones. They all flocked to Snyder and Julie Kagawa.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I like XVI. There's too much of a culture shock to understand what is going on in the first chapters.

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

I just went crazy at my local library. I haven't been there in MONTHS, if at all during 2011, so the librarians were happy to see me. They even said, "We've missed you around here!" One of the old women asked me to marry her daughter because I was a handsome, intelligent young gentlemen who reads...apparently there aren't very many of us, haha!!

The books I got are:

Darkest Mercy and Graveminder by Melissa Marr
The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum
Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome by Steven Saylor

I'm so excited! Gods, I love summer!

[Dustin]

Rita wrote: "I'm reading XVI. Three chapters in, and I'm not sure what I think of it. Has anyone else read this one yet?

"


No, I haven't heard of it, either, Rita..

[Kate]

I'm trying the Mortal Instruments series. Read the first one; thought it was pretty good.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Kate wrote: "I'm trying the Mortal Instruments series. Read the first one; thought it was pretty good."

Without giving anything away, were you shocked/upset/sickened by the major revelation of the romantic interest?

[Ashley]

Currently reading

[Kate]

Rita wrote: "Kate wrote: "I'm trying the Mortal Instruments series. Read the first one; thought it was pretty good."

Without giving anything away, were you shocked/upset/sickened by the major revelation of ..."

A little shocked - I'd read some slightly spoilery comments before which I hadn't understood, but then made me think "Ohhhhh, that's what you meant."

**** SPOILER; DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ AT LEAST BOOK 1 OF THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS SERIES ****

Honestly, I wasn't especially sickened. It's not like these kids were breaking the sibling taboo; they hadn't been raised together to think of each other as brother and sister - all they shared was blood. I remember a very good movie in which a passionately-in-love older couple found out that (whoops) they were half-siblings because his father and her mother had had an affair. The kids had never known, they weren't raised together, the taboo never kicked in. After some agonizing, they ended up staying together: no one knew the secret but them, so there would be no ostracization; and plus they were in their 40s and hadn't been planning on having kids with each other anyway, so they weren't passing bad genes to another generation. It was a risky ending for the movie, but I felt it was done well.

Of course, you can't really tell two teenagers like Clary and Jace to handle it that way, young as they are . . .

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I thought it was a strange way to end a love triangle, but I preferred [can't remember his name] to Jace. I'm a sucker for the guy best-friend who falls in love with heroine.

And I agree with you about the sick factor. It's not like they knew.

But then I married my best friend and never regretted it.

[Kate]

Have you read the next few books? There's another twist on the love triangle, but I won't blow it if you don't know already.

I married my best friend too. It's underrated.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I haven't read past the first book yet. Last year, I tasted a bit out of a lot of different types of books, with the intention of coming back to their sequels later. I'm running out of books I want to read, so I'll probably pick those up soon.

[Kate]

Hmm, I'll let the spoiler go, then. I'm about halfway through the second book now. Not as compelling as the Hunger Games by any means, but they're fast fun reads and the heroine has some fire.

[Stephanie]

I recently read The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan- actually it was a couple of weeks ago but that still counts as recent doesn't it?

Also, I finished Entwined this morning. You know those books you love and enjoy so much that you want to cry for joy after you finish them? This is one of them. At least, it is for me. So beautiful!

[Rita, Busy Bee]

This week, I finished The Hob's Bargain. The story made me love fantasy again. I've become such a fan of urban fantasy that I've forgotten how good a pure fantasy book can be.

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

Just finished Darkest Mercy and Graveminder. Both are by Melissa Marr. Great books.

Darkest Mercy was the 5th installment in the Wicked Lovely series and was a satisfactory ending to a great series.

Graveminder is her first adult novel and it was really good, I was pleasantly surprised. Very originial idea, very southern gothic. I highly enjoyed it.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I am currently reading Fire Study, but I'm having a hard time getting into it. I think I keep forgetting that I actually have a book to read, or maybe I'm just not in the mood for this one.

However, I do think the "soulfinder" concept is very interesting. I am looking forward to learning more about that.

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

Fire Study! The Study Series is one of my favorites! Well actually anything by Snyder is one of my favorites :)

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Have you noticed any similarities between Yelena and Trella? Both jump into trouble with both feet and don't realize the consequences until it is too late.

I know that Maria V. Snyder is a pantser. Her writing style is to jump in and start writing, watching to see where the story will take her. Just like her characters...

[Kyle, The Damned Yankee]

I never noticed but you're totally right! We all put a little of ourselves in our characters, even the bad ones, and that shines through more often than not in our main characters.

I really want her to write in Sitia/Ixia again. That world fascinates me.